Agenda item

The Head of Corporate Parenting and Fostering delivered an update on Children in Care to the Board. At the time of the report, there were 498 children who were cared for, 322 had plans of permanence and were supported by the Children Looked After Teams. 15 had plans of permanence and were supported by social workers in the Children with Disability Service. The remaining children and young people were subject to permanence planning within the Safeguarding and Care Planning Service and Assessment Service. Of those subject to permanence planning a majority were subject to legal processes in order to determine plans of permanence. Middlesbrough had 2 children who were in our care who were currently subject to Deprivation of Liberty Orders under the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection, within Safeguarding and Care Planning.

For children in care who were no longer in the education system, working or being trained for work, a personal advisor would work in conjunction with the Social Worker and had a responsibility to care leavers after their care order had ceased. They supported their young people to develop life skills for independent living and access key agencies who can assist them. The key services used were as follows; the NEET Clinic, the Work Readiness Team, and the Middlesbrough Employability Hub drop in which takes place twice a week. It was also raised that incidents of young people presenting as homeless on their 18th birthday had increased so advice around housing and how to contact social housing providers as well as managing budgets was an important aspect of the personal advisors’ work.

The Early Help team provided support to young people around education, employment and training, which was available up to 21 years. Discussions had been held with the service to seek to extend this to 25 years in line with the extended duties. The service was seen to have a positive impact for young people, and it was hoped that with the expansion of this work, this would extend to all young people who were cared for and care experienced. There had been feedback that care experienced children were accessing better opportunities and achieving more due to the work of the Early Help team.

The funding by the DfE around reunification ended in March 2025. However, this work continued within the teams as part of the Council’s role and responsibility, this was monitored through Permanency Monitoring Group (PMG). Although a change in working practices and culture was needed, across a number of services, this had been a positive intervention with either changed orders or care orders discharged in some cases and clarity on the need for long term foster care for some children and young people. Courts and DfE had been positive about this work and had provided compliments around this. Feedback from families who had been through the reunification process had also been received and they reported very positive experiences working with children’s care.

The Fostering Service had also been developed alongside the reunification work and a Kinship Team had been introduced, via the Modernising Fostering Transformation work. This team would provide support to SGO and CAO carers post order, when the children are no longer open to Children Services. This team would provide reviews of support plans, access to training and support groups for kinship carers. Managers and legal colleagues had met with the senior Judge to advise of the work in this area, which was received very positively, with the senior Judge agreeing to notify all Judges within the Court of the work by Middlesbrough.

Marketing campaigns had also been run across the North East to encourage local foster carers and had received good engagement. The shortage of foster carers was due to a variety of reasons including the high level of responsibility, in-depth assessments and training, the requirement to have a spare bedroom and an aging population where biological children were living at home for longer. There was an increasing rate of children having to be placed outside their home authority due to availability and keeping local links was key to a child’s progression.

The Volunteer Voice and Change Ambassador suggested the creation of videos featuring children in care as part of a marketing campaign to show their stories, highlight the voices of care experienced children and encourage fostering in the town.

Members queried what the role of a Personal Advisor entailed and it was confirmed that they worked in conjunction with the Social Worker and had a responsibility to care leavers after their care order had ceased. They supported their young people to develop life skills for independent living and access key agencies who can assist them. The key services used were as follows; the NEET Clinic, the Work Readiness Team, and the Middlesbrough Employability Hub drop in which takes place twice a week. It was also raised that they had seen young people presenting as homeless on their 18th birthday so advice around housing and how to contact social housing providers as well as managing budgets was an important aspect of the personal advisors’ work.

A Member queried how many personal advisers were currently in post and it was confirmed that there were 15.

AGREED that:

1.      Officers would look into the creation of videos featuring children in care as part of a marketing campaign to show their stories, highlight the voices of care experienced children and encourage fostering in the town.

2.      That the information provided was received and noted.